Caine Monroy: An Appreciation

In case you missed it, Caine is the nine-year-old star of “Caine’s Arcade,” a short film that’s taken the Web by viral storm in the last few days. The true-to-life tale goes something like this: Boy spends a summer hanging out with his dad at his East Los Angeles auto parts store. Boy sees a lot of empty cardboard boxes. Boy turns those boxes into very crude facsimiles of the games he loves to play at his local arcade.

Oh, and boy is discovered by one Nirvan Mullick, a filmmaker (and as it turns out, the arcade’s only customer). Mullick sees the whimsy in Caine’s arcade and not only organizes a flash mob of eager-to-play customers, but also decides to turn Caine’s story into 11 minutes of pure cinematic magic.

I’m sure there will be more good news to follow. As it is, there’s already a scholarship fund set up in Caine’s name – and it’s taken in more than $100,000. And a Los Angeles pinball palace has given Caine his own vintage machine. A line of T-shirts is also forthcoming – just like the one Caine wears in the movie. Even Forbes.com is predicting Caine will be a billionaire by the time he’s 30.

I suppose there are a lot of folks who find joy in this story for the obvious reasons: Caine is a good kid with a vivid imagination – and has a supportive dad to boot. In an era when too many children play too many mindless video games, he’s living proof of how homemade fun is still the best kind. But in the circles I travel, Caine is being celebrated for an even more obvious reason.

You see, I’m a 48-year-old arcade fanatic – a boy among men, if you will. And I’m not alone.

Give me a roll of quarters (or a cash-loaded game card, as is more often the case these days) and a bunch of machines that involve a little skill, a little luck and a whole lot of tickets to be won and I can easily kill an hour. Or two. Or three. Or…well, you get the point.

Even better, give me a row of pinball machines, especially vintage machines – the kind that require more finesse and body English and less gimmickry (like an easy multiball). I’ve been playing pinball since the mid ‘70s and I still pine for the favorite arcade of my New York youth, the Broadway Arcade on 52nd Street and Broadway – a pinball haven, especially in a city that once outlawed the game. (It was a Skee-Ball haven, too – and I had the walkie-talkie set from a year’s worth of winning and saving my tickets to prove it.)

These days, I get my kicks in the occasional prize-redemption arcade of the Dave & Buster’s variety (though I still can’t quite warm up to a “chain” arcade). But mostly, I play league pinball at bars around the city. Yes, you read that right: a pinball league – for 48-year-olds like me still pretending to be 18 or even 8. Well, that and a bunch of hipsters who have rediscovered the game in a what’s-old-is-new fashion (God love ‘em, however – if they didn’t rediscover pinball, there would probably not be a watering hole in the city that had a machine).

It’s hard to say what makes us chase the silver ball – or the Skee-Ball – but I think it’s also what motivates Caine. That is, we like our game-playing, but not in the two-dimensional form offered by the video world. Meaning we like an actual plunger, an actual flipper, an actual ball. And we like lots of them – an arcade is never just a single game. It’s a more-the-merrier experience, with all the bells, whistles and lights that go along with the machines.

Which perhaps explains why most of the guys I know in the pinball league – and, yes, it’s mostly guys who play the sport (my teammate Debra notwithstanding) – live in awe of those among us who manage to find space for a machine or two in their cramped New York City apartments. Some middle-aged men yearn to drive a Corvette. We want have our own personal arcade – for our own amusement, but also for sharing with others: You bring the chips, I’ll provide the pinball.

But Caine Monroy beat us to it. He couldn’t buy a row of machines, so he built his own, each replete with a prize-ticket dispenser. OK, Caine has to stand behind the machines to do the dispensing, but you gotta love the fact he left no detail untouched. Here’s a kid in full kid mode. I hope he stays nine forever.

In the meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder: Does anybody have a few cardboard boxes they’re looking to get rid of…

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.